The present invention relates generally to a computer method and system for presentations and, more specifically, to a method and system for conferencing a presentation for multiple computer systems.
Computer systems have been used to prepare and display various types of presentations. For example, applications have been developed to help a presenter prepare slides for a presentation. These slides can either be printed for projection or directly displayed on a large monitor. When displayed on a monitor, the application can control the timing and sequencing of the presentation. However, each audience member must be in the same room as the presenter to view the presentation.
Application sharing systems have been developed that allow the output of one computer program to be displayed at multiple computer systems. Thus, with such application sharing systems, a presentation could be displayed to several xe2x80x9caudience membersxe2x80x9d who are located at remote computer systems. However, such application sharing systems typically have an extremely high overhead. For example, the bitmap image, which can be very large, of each display is sent to each audience member. The transfer of such large amounts of data can take a considerable amount of time, especially if transferred through modem, and telephone lines. Thus, there may be a considerable delay from when the presenter indicates to go to the next slide until all the audience members actually see the image of that slide. Also, the display sizes at the computer systems vary and thus complicated scaling or scrolling of the bitmap is typically needed. It would be desirable to have a presentation system that avoids these overheads.
The present invention provides a presentation method and system for simultaneously displaying a presentation at multiple computer systems. One computer system is designated as a presenter computer system, and the other computer systems are designated as audience member computer systems. At the presenter computer system, an instance of a presentation application designated to control the display of a presentation is executed. The application exposes a function for controlling behavior of the application and provides an option for indicating that a presentation is to be displayed simultaneously on multiple computer systems. The presenter computer system also has a conference subsystem. The conference subsystem has a messaging component, an automation component, and a user interface component. The messaging component sends commands to and receives commands from audience member computer systems. The automation component controls the behavior of the instance of application using the exposed function. The user interface component displays the presentation within a conference window, receives commands from a presenter, sends the commands to each audience member computer system, and directs the automation component to effect the performing of a behavior of the received commands. At each audience member computer system, an instance of the application program is also executed. Each audience member also has a conference subsystem with a messaging component, an automation component, and a user interface component. The messaging component sends commands to and receives commands from the presenter computer system. The automation component controls the behavior of the instance of application using the exposed function. The user interface component displays the presentation within a conference window, and directs the automation component to effect the performing of a behavior of the received commands.
Thus, the presenter""s conference subsystem receives commands from the presenter and directs its instance of the application to perform the commands. The presenter""s conference subsystem also sends the commands to the audience member computer system. The audience member""s conference subsystem receives the commands and directs its instance of the application to perform the commands. In this way, each computer system executes the same commands to effect simultaneous display of the presentation.